Contents

Background

Scotland’s colleges have implemented the most profound set
of public sector reforms in Scottish tertiary education for more
than a generation. The reformed college sector is improving
people’s life chances and generating the skilled workforce
needed for economic growth by focusing on job-related skills.

Colleges have built on their tradition of serving the most
disadvantaged and those furthest from the workplace. They continue
to serve our most deprived communities, as well as those with
additional support needs; older learners and women;
care-experienced students; and those from a Black and Minority
Ethnic background. With equality sitting at the heart of the
college sector, there are further ambitions in relation to looked
after children and the gender imbalance found in particular subject
areas.

Strong partnership working has led to the development of
Regional College Outcome Agreements that reflect the economic and
skills needs in each region. Colleges are also crucial to
Developing the Young Workforce; preparing young people for
employment by offering them more choice and flexibility in their
learner journey.

Further Education (
FE) level students
also continue to be supported with record levels of financial
support, but rather than being complacent, we are considering the
recommendations of the Independent Review of Student Support. The
Review aimed to ensure that university and college students, and
particularly the most vulnerable, benefit from a fair and effective
package of appropriate financial support.

Scotland’s college sector is one that continues to evolve
and continues to deliver for the people and economy of
Scotland.

Our colleges have a strong track record of
success

In 2015/16, 97.2% of learning hours were delivered on courses
that led to a recognised qualification – an 8.5 percentage
point increase from 2006/07.

Chart 1: Percentage of learning hours on recognised
qualifications

This good work from Scotland’s colleges means that of
those with a known destination in 2015/16, nearly 95% of college
leavers moved on to a positive destination, such as further study,
training or employment.

Entrants to college now make up 37% of the total undergraduate
students starting in Higher Education (
HE), the highest
proportion in the last 10 years. Perhaps even more impressive, is
that over 41% of all full-time college activity was in
HE-level courses in
2015/16, also the highest proportion ever.

College students are very happy with their experience: over 90%
of full-time and over 94% of part-time students are satisfied with
their college experience.
FE students are being
supported with record levels of support, with the 2017/18 budget of
over £107m in college bursaries, childcare and discretionary
funds being a real-terms increase of 32% since 2006/07. Indeed, the
non-repayable bursary available in Scotland is the highest level
anywhere in the
UK.

Case study

Dundee and Angus College (Winner at College Development
Network [
CDN]
Annual Awards 2016): The D&A Code Academy

The College has responded to the digital skills shortage by
launching the first ever Code Academy. This curriculum concept
links the College with local schools, universities, and employers.
It increases awareness of the importance of digital skills, and
highlights career opportunities in the digital/
ICT
industries in the region.

The Code Academy offers code camps, workshops for school pupils,
coding workshops for adults, and coding clubs for girls. Continuing
Professional Development (
CPD)
for Computer Science school teachers has also been established, as
well as industry master classes, career talks, Foundation and
Modern Apprenticeships in Software Development, and a number of
industry sponsored events such as an annual Game and App Jam. Over
500 students have benefited from the Code Academy and almost 96%
have moved on to further study or employment.

Our colleges produce the workforce of the future

Colleges are crucial in bridging the gap between school and
industry to create a skilled, employable future workforce which
meets the needs of the regions they serve. Colleges are doing this
by focusing on purposeful learning opportunities which lead to
recognised qualifications.

This approach is clearly working. In 2015/16 almost 12,000 more
students in both
FE and
HE at college
successfully completed full-time courses leading to recognised
qualifications than in 2008/09 (25.7% increase).

The number of full-time
HE students studying
for recognised qualifications at colleges has grown by 23.6% since
2008/09, and 2015/16 saw the highest ever number of full-time
HE students
successfully completing recognised qualifications (over
24,300).

Scottish Funding Council (
SFC) statistics
show 9 out of 10 of students were satisfied that their ‘
time at college had helped them develop knowledge and skills
for the workplace.’

Colleges also make a vital contribution to up-skilling and
re-skilling the existing workforce, and that is why short courses
leading to employment or progression continue to be funded.
Statistics highlight the extent of part-time opportunities
available at colleges – indeed, the majority of the total
enrolments at college (
FE and
HE) are still on
part-time courses (72.0%).

Apprenticeships

Colleges play an important role in delivering the successful
Modern Apprenticeship programme which offers opportunities to gain
skills, experience and a qualification while in employment. With a
national ambition to have 30,000 Modern Apprenticeships starts by
2020, the key role of colleges in this programme will continue.

Colleges are also the main provider of Foundation
Apprenticeships which enable young people to gain
industry-recognised qualifications, real-world work experience and
access to work-based learning while still at school. There were 351
Foundation Apprenticeship starts in 2016/17, and this will expand
to up to 5,000 by the end of 2019.

Case study

Forth Valley College (Commended at
CDN
Annual Awards 2016): Making the Forth Valley Curriculum
Work

Forth Valley College has developed, and is delivering on, a
sustainable regional curriculum strategy, designed around both the
needs of the region and national priorities. Serving the three
diverse communities of Falkirk, Stirling, and Clackmannanshire
– and with a campus in each of these areas – the
College has strategically positioned its key curriculum areas in
the campus localities that provide best fit with local economic,
business, and industry profiles. This minimises duplication and
maximises access to entry-level learning and progression to
specialist, industry standard learning facilities.

In developing its curriculum strategy, the College has worked
closely with its extensive base of employer and industry body
contacts and Community Planning Partners in each locality; and
drawn on up-to-date labour market information, through Regional
Skills Assessments and Skills Investment Plans. As a result, they
have implemented an efficient ‘hub and spoke’ system of
learning provision, which provides access level study in most
subject areas across all three campuses, with progression to higher
level study centred where it provides best local fit.

Our colleges give everyone the chance to succeed

Our colleges are able to reach out to those furthest from the
labour market and education, giving everyone an equal chance of
fulfilling their potential, and having equal choices to succeed in
life.They do this by delivering learning which is increasingly
personalised and flexible, assisted by interactive technologies and
tailored to the needs and aspirations of students.

Successful completion rates for all full-time
FE students have
increased by 6.7 percentage points since 2008/09, while dropout
rates have fallen by 2.4 percentage points in the same period.

Successful completion rates for all full-time
HE students have
increased by 8.3 percentage points since 2008/09, while dropout
rates have fallen by 4.1 percentage points in the same period.

Colleges recruit well from the most deprived areas, with
students from
SIMD10,
SIMD20 and
SIMD40
areas overrepresented when compared to the general population. In
2015/16, 26.3% of college entrants in
HE, and 32.0% of
college entrants in
FE, came from
Scotland’s 20% most deprived areas – this is an
increase of 2.5 percentage points and 2.3 percentage points
respectively since 2006/07.

Chart 4: Proportion of Scottish-domiciled college
entrants from SIMD20 areas by level of study

The Commission on Widening Access acknowledged the distinctive
role of colleges in serving Scotland’s most deprived
communities, concluding that
‘colleges provide a crucial alternative route into higher
education and can play a powerful role in expanding the limited
applicant pool resulting from the school attainment
gap.’

Female students

Women are well represented amongst college students, accounting
for the majority of college enrolments (51% in 2015/16). The
proportion of female students enrolled on recognised qualifications
has increased by over 19 percentage points since 2006/07 (rising
from 56.9% in 2006/07 to 76.0% in 2015/16).

As part of Developing the Young Workforce, the
SFC published a
Gender Action Plan in August 2016, setting out actions they will
undertake in collaboration with the sector, and other partners, to
address gender imbalances and reduce gender gaps in college and
undergraduate courses.

Older learners

There are a wealth of learning opportunities at Scotland’s
colleges for students aged 25 and over. In 2015/16, 28.7% of all
learning hours were delivered to students aged 25 and over, with
nearly 43% of all Scotland’s college students being within
this age group.

Older learners are benefitting from the focus on improving
employability through studying for recognised qualifications. The
proportion of students aged 25 and over enrolled on recognised
qualifications has increased by over 18 percentage points since
2006/07 (rising from 56.3% in 2006/07 to 74.5% in 2015/16).

Students with additional support needs

Nearly 17% of all learning hours were delivered to students with
a declared disability in 2015/16 - an increase of 4.4 percentage
points from 2006/07.

Chart 5: Percentage of learning hours delivered to
students with a disability

Colleges have access to ring-fenced funding, via the
SFC, to provide
specialised support for individual students with specific
educational support needs on mainstream courses – a total of
£50 million.
SFC also
provide colleges with funding which supports bespoke provision.

Black and Minority Ethnic (
BME)
students

BME students
are very well represented in Scotland’s colleges. 6.0% of all
college learning hours in 2015/16 were delivered to
BME students
(up from 5.6% in 2014/15 and the highest on record) – this is
higher than the corresponding proportion of the population (4% in
the 2011 Scottish Census).

This cohort achieve successful outcomes at college. In 2015/16,
71.8% of
BME students
successfully completed college courses lasting 160 hours or more
(up from 70.2% in 2014/15), compared to 69.0% for all
enrolments.

Care-experienced students

Considerable work has been undertaken to support
care-experienced students at college. A national policy for
FE bursaries was
introduced in 2016/17 asking colleges to ensure care-experienced
students receive the optimum award available taking into account
their wider circumstances.

In recognition of the barriers to learning often faced by this
group, the
SFC set a
National Ambition in 2016 with a target for there to be no
difference in the outcomes of care-experienced learners comparative
to their peers. The target is to improve the numbers of
care-experienced students successfully completing full-time
FE and
HE courses by 5
percentage points by 2018/19.

Data collection has improved in relation to care-experienced
students.
SFC statistics
show that 0.3% (148 out of 50,198) of full-time college qualifiers
were care-experienced in 2014/15, rising to 1.1% (571 out of
50,682) in 2015/16.

ISTILE
is a two-year project designed to offer disadvantaged learners the
opportunity to study and work in an overseas environment. It also
offers the teaching team the opportunity to research and report on
financial deprivation across Europe, and offer advice and
recommendations around best practice when it comes to supporting
young people who face barriers to learning caused by financial
deprivation.

Our colleges continually strive for improvement

Scotland’s colleges must continue to build and grow,
innovate and improve, change and develop – just what
colleges’ success to date has been built on. The
SFC’s
Outcome Agreement process is a powerful lever in ensuring that
colleges deliver in return for public investment, and reporting on
those measures is now reinforced by Education Scotland’s new
quality framework, “How good is our college?”. There
are also a number of other specific ways in which improvement is
being sought in Scotland’s colleges including:

College Improvement Programme

We want to boost retention and attainment rates among
FE students, and
particularly for those students currently most at risk of
withdrawing without achieving a qualification or moving to a
positive destination.

As part of our effort, we have commenced a national college
improvement programme to look in detail at individual college level
solutions to raise attainment and improve retention. Over the next
two academic years the programme will examine and test improvements
to overcome the issues and challenges that often contribute to
students not gaining a qualification – or, indeed, dropping
out. On behalf of the college sector, five colleges will form an
improvement team and undertake testing, gather information about
what works to share across the sector, contributing to an increase
in attainment and retention within and between the five colleges.
Their success will also be used to drive improvement across the
sector as a whole.

Innovation

There is also a desire for colleges to be more involved in
innovation - our economy needs a highly skilled, adaptable and
confident workforce, and colleges have excellent links with
SMEs.

An action plan has been put in place by the
SFC’s
College Innovation Working Group to ignite collaboration between
colleges and businesses. This includes bringing colleges further
into the community of Scotland’s eight Innovation Centres,
while the Scottish Government announced a College Innovation Fund
(£500,000 in 2017/18) to support Scotland’s colleges to
work with businesses on innovation activity.

Case study

West College Scotland: Innovation Voucher (James Frew
Ltd)

James Frew Ltd is one of the largest privately owned building
services companies in Scotland and was awarded an
SFC Innovation
Voucher, administered by Interface. This gives the company the
opportunity to collaborate with West College Scotland to develop a
new innovative training planning process, including the monitoring
of certification renewals, development of individual training plans
and the measurement of the impact of training through
AMI
(Achievement Measurement Indexing).

Through this, the College will improve its service delivery in
gas engineering and develop a greater understanding of training
needs analysis for the building services sector as a result of the
collaboration. The project will also enhance understanding of
industry within the College and support the development of
processes that will make the College more responsive to business
needs.

Roddy Frew, Managing Director, of James Frew Ltd, said
‘we are delighted to work with West College Scotland on
the Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher and it has helped
us align training plans and enhance our service
offer’.